Tue, 30 Nov, -0001
Fujairah: Jordan's superb second-half display in their 5-2 victory over Vietnam on Thursday has set the benchmark for the quarter-final against Australia says head coach Jamal Abu Abed.
Jordan scored five times in a barnstorming to seal their place in the quarter-finals of the 2012 AFC U-19 Championship as Group C runners-up.
Bilal Qwaider broke the deadlock at the Fujairah Stadium seven minutes after the interval before Nguyen Xuan Nam equalised for Vietnam two minutes later.
Laith Al Bashtawi restored Jordan's lead in the 64th minute and their advantage was extended nine minutes later through substitute Saleh Ibrahim.
Ngyuen Thanh Hien closed the gap with an 84th minute penalty but Jordan finished the match in style with a superb solo effort from Qwaider three minutes later and a composed stoppage-time finish from substitute Ahmad Al Essawi sealing the win.
"Our players must repeat that second half performance in the next match against Australia and keep our discipline in order to reach World Cup," Abu Abed said at the post-match press conference.
"Our team had good preparations for the tournament, as we started the work immediately after the qualifiers, and had the last six months full of training camps and friendly matches".
"We played against very strong teams in this group and we had to win today and wait for the result of the other match in the group.
"My complements for Vietnam team who played a strong match today, and put all there effort even that they had no chance to advance."
Abu Abed attributed the somewhat lacklustre first-half display partly down to the unsettling effects of having of having to move away from the more familiar venue of Ras Al Khaimah, where they played their first two matches, to Fujairah, while Vietnam coach Mai Duc Chung blamed his side's defeat on too many errors and the fact they ran out of steam in the second-half while trying to compete with the physically superior Jordanians.
"The reason behind our loss was our defensive mistakes and also the fact that we couldn't compete for 90 minutes against a team as physically strong as Jordan," he said.
"Jordan is very good in playing long balls and high balls and while this worked in the match against us it might not work against other strong physical teams."